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I forgot to turn of bittorrent when I went to class (stupid, I know), and my University is a bunch of narcs. They're under no legal obligation to do anything without a subpoena, and yet they give out information to the MPAA/RIAA/whoever when requested to do so and have a whole slew of unreasonable penalities.

For example, I have to pay 100 dollars for some idiot to check my computer for illegal software. Last time I did that (about 3 years ago), they failed to notice the ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM was pirated... but I digress...

Below is the information about the essay I have to write. They basically want an essay on the evils of file sharing, complete with sources and citations. I know there are a bunch of pro-filesharing redditors here and I'd like to have their input.

**** EXERPT FROM EMAIL****

You are to write a scholarly paper on Responsible Computing, Illegal Filesharing and Copyright Infringement. Please discuss the following topics:

A. Read the University’s Responsible Computing Policy then discuss which points pertain specifically to illegal filesharing of music, movies and other copyrighted materials. Explain what students can and should do to protect themselves from illegal filesharing, including what legal resources the University provides for students to get music and movies.

B. Discuss the legal aspects of unauthorized filesharing. Some topics to touch on include: What laws (local, state or federal) have been enacted to combat this problem? What do these laws prohibit? Who initiated these laws? What are the penalties that can be assessed for violations of these various laws? What penalties have actually been assessed for violators of these laws?

C. Discuss the impact unauthorized filesharing has had on the entertainment industry. Some topics to touch on include: How have sales of CDs, DVDs and the like been affected by this situation? What steps have the recording, movie and other affected industries taken to discourage or impede illegal sharing and copying? What long-term effects are predicted if unauthorized sharing continues unabated?

D. Discuss what you have learned from this incident and describe your plan of action to ensure a repeat violation does not occur.

The paper must be at least 5 complete pages, with a 12-point font with one-inch margins. You must use a minimum of five different sources; at least three of which must be a non-Internet source (such as a journal, book or newspaper). Use of a dictionary can be used to enhance your work, however cannot be counted as a source. These references must be properly cited in the text of the paper and included on a separate Works Cited page.

After submitting your assignment, you may be required to meet with a member of the Student Conduct staff to discuss the contents of your paper.

**** END ****

Basically, I'd like to write an irreproachably scholarly paper on why file sharing is inevitable, and why the powers-that-be need to embrace it.

A few things that crossed my mind for each section of the letter:

A) Well... Not much to say about this.

B) A few things crossed my mind here. First of all, these laws remind me of the attempts to squash out radio and TV when those two media first hit the airwaves. I'm thinking this could be an interesting approach given that the EFF (and other organizations) have been advocating an analogue to broadcast licensing for ISPs, which (if I understand it correctly) would be a small surcharge added to every internet contract, which in turn would allow people to download anything and everything. Artists would then make their revenue based on usage metrics. I feel like this would also be a good time to bring up points on how the RIAA/MPAA does not have the artist's best interests at heart. Unfortunately I'm rather uneducated in this area so guidance is needed.

This is also a good time to approach the topic of DRM and how it is linked to zone coding and how that has typically resulted in rape for the consumer. I could use sources for this as well as general advice. I seem to remember a bunch of studies/publications concluding that DRM encourages piracy and that DRM does not benefit the artist. I'd also like some information how what percentage of the average arist's revenue is comprised of CD sales.

C) I seem to remember reading about a study a few weeks ago that concluded that CD/DVD sale actually went up as a result of file sharing and that pirates typically by more music than non-pirates. Does anybody remember that? Does anybody have any additional sources/input? This is the section I could use the most help with.

D) I have NO idea how to approach this. Clearly I haven't learned what they want me to learn.

Can anyone suggest reputable sources or studies? What about advice on points to bring up? I just need help in general... any kind of help, including upvotes, is immensely appreciated.

Please bear in mind my objective is not to be an asshole, but rather to argue a case intelligently. I'm sure they'll rage about it either way, but since I'm in trouble, I have to tread carefully here. Also, the more print publications (non-internet), the better.

EDIT

There seems to be some confusion about what I'm actually trying to accomplish, so let me try to clear that up.

I am not going to write them a big "fuck you" paper. I'm going to complete the assigment, but I'm going to treat the subject fairly. I'll include the RIAA/MPAA's position, but I will also include the competing viewpoints. As I said before, this paper will be irreproachably academic and appropriate. This is NOT about locking horns with the administration.

The reason I'm doing this is not because I'm deluded enough to think that the office of judicial affairs is going to change their policy. I realize that their hands are tied and I don't want to make their jobs any harder. I'm writing this paper because I find the topic to be genuinely interesting, and because I hope that somebody will find it interesting as well.

Also, I removed EDIT1 - 3 because I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to attract any more attention to myself. I broke the law, and I'm getting of rather lightly, so I'll leave it at that. Invoking the wrath of TorrentFreak and appealing this case is bound to get me into more trouble than its worth, so again, my paper will be non-confrontational, well-researched, balanced and on topic. Sorry to disappoint =)

That's the registrant. I don't know much about the location, but it seems like there are a lot of websites that are registered with that address. Of course, that basically just means that they're a host. Otherwise, I suppose you could do some research to make sure these guys are on the up and up... or down and down, depending on your perspective of which side has the good guys.

I'm not terrified of it, but after that whole debaucle where the RIAA opened up a file-sharing site (which was quickly found out and then shut down), I don't put it past them to try something like that.

They really need to read that article about people who download things actually buying more overall.

While funny, this may put you into a much more compromising situation if they accuse you of violating your university's academic integrity policy. Don't risk expulsion for the sake of making a clever joke.

There's a white paper at the Canadian Copyright Consultation that covers a lot of item (C) (and other things), complete with references. The paper mainly focuses on Canadian copyright, but there are references to U.S. law and the principles and references are generic.

Item (D) might also be fun to throw in comments about how your research into the issue lead you to understand that the U.S. laws don't make economic sense and seem to be about monopolistic control, etc., etc. For what I'd do to ensure a repeat violation does not occur, I'd probably throw in something about lobbying the university and the U.S. government to change it's laws, voting for politicians who opposed monopolistic behaviour and didn't accept money from the RIAA and MPAA, etc.

I'm not sure there's much you can do about (A) and (B) since they simply ask you to regurgitate policies and laws.

Alright, I'm writing this from the perspective of someone that (1) used to personally deal with DMCA complaints and (2) didn't agree with the DMCA in any way, shape, or form. Please excuse my writing if I jump between past and present tense. I used to handle these for quite a while before moving on to bigger and better things.

First and foremost, the complaints were a huge annoyance. However, I legally had to deal with them but truly didn't care about the DMCA, MPAA, RIAA, BSA, etc. I'd sometimes have to process 20+ of these in a single day on top of all of the other shit I'd have to get done. I had no desire to process them and wanted to get through them as quickly as possible.

Argue all you want, but there's a good chance it was you and we knew it was you. University employees aren't all idiots and have a ton of useful network tools at their disposal for current and archived stats. In about 5 minutes we could look at old traffic, determine the application type, match it to your existing MAC address, etc.

You greatly increased your chances of being put under the microscope by saying it wasn't you, you've never heard of bittorrent, we can't prove it's you, etc. My goal was to get the acknowledgment letter saying that it wouldn't happen again. If you made my life painful by making obvious excusing and BS'ing, I'd simply return the screw. I liked nothing more than a single line email that said "Apologies, it won't happen again".

On a personal note, you're an idiot for getting caught, even more so for being caught multiple frigging times. There's a ton of methods for avoiding/minimizing your chances: BTGuard, block lists, etc. Easily 75% of my coworkers used bittorrent and we never received a single complaint for any of them over 3+ years. We used to refer to the "administrative fee" as the "idiot fee" for precisely this reason.

The majority of my university counterparts were more or less the same way. Every now and then you'll get a hard-ass that takes them seriously, but this is how it typically looks from the other side of the door.

EDIT

And to add to your points:

It doesn't matter who files the DMCA complaint as long as it's their copyrighted material.

Involving TorrentFreak will cause the powers-that-be to bring the pain for being an annoyance.

Do not appeal to the university judicial board. You've already admitted you're guilty. If you push the issue, which you're admittedly guilty of, then they're going to push back and you'll be in a world of hurt. I had a blatantly guilty student try this same shit with me and he ended up getting suspended for a semester when the SJO realized the student was wasting his time and lying.

Our university's solution to this problem was the best ever. They completely approved of the running of an intracampus filesharing hub (DC++). Outside IPs were banned in this hub, so that only university students living on campus could use it, so RIAA folks couldn't get in. This meant that only one copy of each popular TV show/movie was ever torrented, and almost everyone would get it from the hub after that, because it was so much faster. (Also, intracampus traffic was free but transfer to outside IPs cost a certain amount per GB)

Upvote for a bit of reality. It would be great to fight the system, but in all honesty it makes it easier for everyone to just apologize. Just BSing a paper will help the situation move on. At least once you move on past a University ISP you will be able to torrent easier.

This happened to me about 6 years ago. I wrote my paper and let it go.

You might want to stir some shit up, but two things are going to happen here. They're going to skim your paper. If it looks like you're remorseful, they'll file it away. If it looks like you're trying to be a martyr, they're going to shut off your network access and make you meet with the Student Conduct staff.

There are many better causes to waste your collegiate time fighting for. The university knows what's going on with file sharing. For the most part, they look the other way. If a company directly says something, they're obligated to make some bullshit effort in order to keep the MPAA/RIAA off their asses and subsequently off your ass the majority of the time. You should probably just do your part in the bullshit effort (especially considering it was you that forgot to turn it off when you were at class, not that that necessarily makes a difference other than simply total amount of time spent sharing).

I can't even believe a university would even impose should a ridiculous sanction. I mean handing out a punishment exercise for misconduct?
Aren't we talking about an adult education institution here? It sounds like a disclipinary measure that was handed out at my junior high school (11 to 14 years) and even that was draconian. it's not a kindergarden.
They might as well get him to write out "I must not download torrentz" a few hundred times.
I can understand from a network security and resource management standpoint (i.e. bandwidth) why file sharing is undesirable - however there are plently of legit uses as well. Why does the email even mention "ünauthorised filesharing". He was using bit torrent. Not same thing. There are also measures that can be taken to manage network resources so that downloads don't hog the network.
i don't know about your country, but If this is a publicly funded institution I would be really quite appalled that this kind of thing is allowed to happen.

The reaction was triggered by a copyright infringement notice from Showtime. Not from network admins seeing him pegging the network. So the email mentioned unauthorised file sharing because that was the issue – The sharing of copyright protected files without the permission or knowledge of the copyright holder was what caused the complaint – his use of bittorent specifically is immaterial, as are the “legitimate” uses of the system.

Still, stupid punishment, but the law kind of pressures them into doing something.

Are you kidding? Of COURSE they have to crack down on this! They were notified that he was downloading a copyrighted file, NOT using bit torrent for legitimate purposes. An individual can stand on principle against this -- a university dealing with a bunch of teenagers just out of daddy's house cannot. They must react in some way, and this seems to me an excellent way to do so. This guy might have some knowledge of the controversy, but 9 times out of 10 it's going to be some privileged, punk-ass 18 year old who thinks he deserves everything for free. Maybe being forced to write a paper and examining the issue from both sides would, I don't know, educate him -- which is after all the business that the university is in. I fail to see where assigning a paper to a college student could possibly be construed as a "draconian" measure, particularly when they have knowingly broken a law and exposed the university.

Uhh, my university "cracked down" on filesharing by appropriately notifying students that they had been caught by a company and informing them that their best course of action was to delete the file, at which time the university would have done its obligation.

Making someone write a stupid paper pretending to be remorseful is not going to do much.

Everyone at my school did it on the campus network. Companies would notify our legal department that someone had been pegged for copyright infringement, and the legal department would notify the student that they needed to delete the file or the university would be forced to submit to a subpoena of the student's information for possible prosecution. End of story.

Unauthorised filesharing is referring to his unauthorised use of the network - they'll have an Acceptable Use Policy and I guarantee there's a clause about it. Also you have to remember that some unis don't get their internet directly from a provider - most (if not all) UK universities use a single provider that will cut off a uni's entire internet access if there's too many violations of the AUP.

And you're right, handing out a punishment is silly - I would expect my uni to simply outright ban my network account, the OP is very lucky they're giving him a chance

There's something wonderful about open defiance, and I think it's sad that Redditors are against it.

Sure, this is not perhaps in his best interest, but it's certainly not a waste of time. He'll undoubtedly improve his research and writing skills by writing a paper about something he is passionate about.

He's also sticking to his guns about his beliefs, and while that may be a bit of a cliche, I approve. (Because it's something I agree with :D)

I appreciate your concern and your candid opinion. I think you're probably right about how they'll react.

That said, I don't live on campus, so I can survive without access to their network. Besides, there are plenty of computer labs I can go to if I ever direly need some internets... plus it's my last year.

At this point I don't care. They're not going to sanction me in any lasting or serious measure for writing a paper they're not happy with. As long as I keep it intellectually honest, and on topic, there's really nothing they can say or do without running the risk of me counter-fucking them.

You waste your time writing your masterpiece on copyright infringement that gets skimmed by one person and filed away.

You stir up enough shit such that the university/MPAA imposes an actual penalty on you (which could be as trivial as having to write another paper [something that would still suck since it's a waste of time] or as serious as being turned over to the MPAA,) since not only are you guilty of copyright infringement, you demonstrate no remorse.

Note that what will not happen is:

.3. Your fantastically written paper convinces the university administration that file-sharing is okay and they change their official policy.

Why waste your time and risk further disciplinary action? Just write them the stupid paper they're looking for.

I agree. You're not wasting anybody's time but your own by writing a good paper. You're not even being graded. What's the point? Just get it over with and remember to turn off bittorrent when you're in class.

I got a speeding ticket once in a town where the police are utterly corrupt. There is a certain stretch of road where they always write tickets for going 44 mph in a 30 zone, no matter how fast the cars are actually going...in my case, I was going 29, which I know beyond any shadow of a doubt because my cruise control was on.

I knew full well that fighting it in court wouldn't amount to anything, because I've been down that road before. Nevertheless, I did. Yeah, I knew that the DA would just tell me that they "don't need to prove anything to fine me," but I had to take the time and go on record saying that it was wrong anyway.

What happened to personal honour in your work? I always felt it was beneath me to just hand in a piece of crap. He might enjoy doing some research and writing something that is actually good, even if nobody reads it he still learnt from it and he can defend his views on this with more authority in the future. And if he really wants an audience he can always put the paper online, it might go viral. lol

If you are just going to college to be graded then I feel sorry for you.

If you are just going to college to be graded then I feel sorry for you.

^ this.

I had a conversation with my girlfriend earlier this semester when I mentioned that I needed to go read a chapter for my class. Her response: "oh, you do the reading? that's cute. I just skim for what I need to answer the questions..."

Many people care more about learning the skill of submitting high quality work with minimal effort than they do about learning the topic studied in the class.

It's not really a big deal, different people have different styles. If someone can submit the same work without doing unnecessary research that's fine, just as it is fine if they want to really immerse themselves in the topic for the sake of learning about it.

I'm not putting down the value of learning how to FIND information, but that should be in addition to actually learning the information. Both will help you in your field in the long term... I guess it depends on the field as to which one is more important though.

I don't really think that was the point here. He's going to have to write a paper anyway whether it's well written or not. While I agree that, yes, the more likely scenario is that someone will skim over it just to check he's remorseful but it's also an opportunity to be heard; even if no one is listening, there is a chance someone might be.

You can't just keep your head down and accept your punishment every time you become the focus of prejudice by some unjust person.

He's not the focus of prejudice by an unjust person. He's the focus of an investigation by a company that is having their copyrighted material stolen. Showtime contacted the school, man. It's not like this kid is innocent. He's lucky that the punishment isn't worse.

1) other classes have work and it's best not to spend too much time on something that won't be graded

2) there are other, better places to voice your opinion and have a greater chance of being heard.

3) at worst, the school might think he is not remorseful and tell him to do something else, like write another paper.

Also, it's not exactly the focus of prejudice if you are doing something illegal. I was caught torrenting twice by my university a couple weeks ago. (Why twice? The first time I incorrectly assumed it was my desktop connected wirelessly to the school when it was really my laptop in class.) The second time they called me and I basically explained the situation and told them I deleted all things related to it.

So another point: It's not a very harsh punishment. Could have been a fine, could have shut off his internet for several days/weeks, could have threatened him with a lawsuit. I say just give the school what it wants and be done with it.

at worst he'll have to write another paper? are you kidding? more like he could be expelled in his last semester with all of that student loan debt and then black listed from whatever college network he's in. then on top of that the MPAA/RIAA will get wind of it if they haven't already and send their lawyers after him.

FYI: I support his effort of giving them a paper that challenges their point of view. Because that is the point of writing a paper, its not for the grades its for challenging norms and persuading people to change their mind and if less people had the mind set of "its okay i'll bend over for what the authority wants me to do so I can get on with my life". That is complete bullshit the reasons why we're in the goatfuck path we are is because we are complacent and do not vote or vote with our dollars correctly.

You stir up enough shit such that the university/MPAA imposes an actual penalty on you (which could be as trivial as having to write another paper [something that would still suck since it's a waste of time] or as serious as being turned over to the MPAA,) since not only are you guilty of copyright infringement, you demonstrate no remorse.

Ahh, but they would need proof. Not to drag you into court and make you spend dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars on lawyers and court fees, but without proof they couldn't arrest you. Possibly.

Encrypt all torrent traffic and accept nothing but encrypted traffic.

PeerGuardian

Encrypt your hard drive.

Simple things that will make your life much easier because there is a smaller chance of being caught, and if you are caught it keeps one big piece of evidence out of their hands.

You realize that universities have you write papers for classes because the process itself is educational? I don't think that writing a masterpiece on an issue that he cares about is a waste at all. It might be stupid because of the reaction that he will get, but not a waste because someone just skims it.

I must agree because they can only see in black and white, they do not want to change and therefore they will not. I used a copy of a transcript that was on wikisource and had come directly from the University of Virginia. I was told that it wasn't a legitimate site since it had "wiki" in it, so I googled it again and on the 10th page back, I found identical information on some random site that didn't contain the word "wiki," and it was then perfectly acceptable.

Honestly, I'd be really tempted - my initial reaction - to write something long about the history of intellectual property, how artists survived for hundreds of years without it, how it's basically a construction of the corporatocracy, the reasons why it was originally intended that copyright should expire, and how that term has been repeatedly extended. I think they've given you great scope with point C to illustrate that that piracy has had no effect on box office takings, that pirates buy more music (there was a recent study to this effect) and the whole thing about Ink being pirated recently, and how it's affected the movie's exposure.

But really, they maybe have the power to ban you from the campus, or escalate this higher up the food chain and get you kicked out of the university. It's not worth creating a rumpus when you're getting your degree next year. Swallow it, write a suckky letter playing their game the way they want you to. Then graduate, then go out and code file-sharing websites, work as a lawyer for those being sued by the RIAA, as an accountant showing how the Pirate Bay guys have no money, whatever... just try and make a difference in the bigger world, not in this small authoritarian fish-bowl which really does not have to bend to your (or my) rules.

If you're going to do it for the ego points and the virtual boner, do it for that, but just don't trick yourself into thinking that the folks skimming it will care about what you're writing and accept the possibility that it may lead to more consequences. Futility and risk alone outweigh the self-righteous ego boost for me, so I would just acquiesce. It may well be worth it for you; just try to be honest to yourself on why you're doing it.

I agree with jotate. When shit goes down at a university, IMO the best advice is to lay low and let it blow over. Do what they ask and shut the fuck up about it. Pretend it never happened and they will too.

They have bigger fish to fry, but not if you start stirring up shit.

The only way to successfully approach this problem otherwise is with a lawyer, and good luck finding a competent lawyer that you can afford and is willing to take this non-issue of a case.

I think that if he feels about this very strongly it is worth the effort, even if no material benefits arise. If he believes in something then he should be encouraged to fight for it. There are plenty of historical examples, right or wrong, where people fought in apparently futile battles and it did turn out well. This may not happen in this particular case but I think standing by what you believe in has value, even if you can't hold in your hand.

I've been caught twice by my school (really, by the HBO) downloading movies illegally. The first time, they searched my computer for the movie and deleted it, and told me not to do it again (As it turns out, I have backups. Oh no!)

The second time they didn't even delete it. They just told me not to get caught a third time, and that they only really care about uploading. So, don't upload anymore. No one has been caught a third time.

When I got caught downloading copyrighted material (Monsoon Wedding), all I had to do was send an email to my network administrator confirming that I had deleted the infringing file. The University had received an email from Universal Studios.

I can't believe I got away so easily. I would hate to write such a paper. I believe in free stuff, stealing, and not giving artists' their due.

Nice try. Not to play the bad guy here, but I could easily tear that apart with the pyramid scheme:

You MADE AVAILABLE a copyrighted song. 100 people downloaded it from you, and those 100 people now passed on the stolen work to 100 people each, who in turn... you get the idea.

Is it your fault that the people who you gave the stolen property to also shared it out? Not sure in a court of law, but if I think of it like a car accident, the guy who cases the first crash, which in turn causes a line of cars to crash behind him, can be sued by each of the people in that crash. Not sure if that correlates or not...

Bad analogy . If there is a accident up ahead on the highway and you crash into the car in front of you. You are at fault.
I had it explained to me after an accident were the man in front of me tried to take the fault for the accident. The driver in front of you can have an LSD flashback and jam on his brakes because he see's a giant pink bunny bouncing down the road towards him. If you hit him it's your fault because you were obviously following at an unsafe distance.

Think before confessing to a crime without taking legal advice, especially if the confession is in writing. If you've decided to be confrontational, which I guess you have, you may end up with the situation escalating. If it escalates you may face legal action - remember your rights.

Be politic - the admins probably want to get the thing over with, so try and come up with a statement indicating you do not intend to engage in illegal activity, without actually confessing.

Showtime makes some of its content available free of charge on its own network and on Hulu. Confusingly, Hulu marks some Showtime shows with [cc] meaning closed caption which can easily be confused with (cc) creative commons. Had you confused the different cc's and thought obtaining the Showtime content was permitted ;-)

Ah, I remember being a college student. I say, stick it to them with all of your intellecual might. You won't win. You will have no effect whatsoever. But, it's still a fun exercise. Ultimately, you will come to understand that your right-hearted attempts to educate the "powers that be" are...well...all for naught. But hope is a beautiful thing.

In the end you'll realize that if they knew anything they never would have made such demands in the first place. By the way, this will be true for every corporation you every work for.

But, by all means, piss in the wind. It gives the rest of us a sense of nostalgic hope (something to laugh at). Or, I don't know, you could stop using their network (not yours) in a way that they disapprove of and use your intellect to do something constructive. Just an idea.

I'm in a computer science ethics class this term, and we've talked about intellectual property. The summary section of whether intellectual property protection is ethical is here:

"We have examined two arguments for why society ought to provide intellectual property protection to software creators. The first argument is based on the notion of just deserts. It is a variation o the natural rights argument we discussed at the beginning of the chapter. This argument is weak; it rests on the faulty assumption that a natural right to own property extends cleanly to intellectual property.

The second argument is based on consequences. It holds that denying intellectual property protection for software would have harmful consequences. It relies upon a chain of cause-and-effect relationships: copying leads to a loss of revenue, which leads to a decline ni software production, which harms society. The strength of each of the links in the chain is debatable; taken as a whole, the argument is not strong.

Our conclusion is that the arguments for granting intellectual property protection for software are not strong, Nevertheless, our society [i]has[/i] granted copyright protection to owners of computer programs. If you violate a licensing agreement by copying a CD containing a computer program and giving it to a friend, you are breaking the law. As we discovered in Chapter 2, from viewpoint of Kantian-ism, rule utilitarianism, and social contract theory, breaking the law is wrong unless there is a strong overriding moral obligation." - (Ethics for the information age 3rd edition by Michael J. Quinn pg. 203)

So if you want to justify breaking the law, it won't be enough of an argument to claim the opposing arguments are weak, you need a strong moral obligation. Just throwing this out there, but if you're daring enough (seriously don't do anything to get in trouble) talk about how the government shouldn't be legislating things based on such weak arguments.

You sir, are an idiot. You are bitching and moaning about getting caught breaking the law by downloading illegal material on a network that can personally identify you, probably by requiring you to log in. This sounds very similar to the cop that got caught downloading kiddie porn on the PD computer. Why were you not using encryption again? Also, your story doesn't wash. You seem to have downloaded a .torrent file while at school. The torrent software does not constantly download a .torrent file, that only happens once, when you do it.

You should have to write a paper on why P2P can be risky if you don't have the skills to properly protect your computer or safely utilize the network. Rather than bitching about your "narc" school, you should bow down and kiss their ass for NOT narcing you out and, instead, letting you off with a paper for risking getting them involved in the headaches associated with dealing with the MPAA.

I know exactly what I'd do in this situation. Answer the questions basically the way you already outlined...and...when you have written the papar, include a license agreement for it. Explain that the university is only allowed one copy of the papar, and that scanning, Xeroxing, or even opening the document in a word processor constitutes making a copy andi is thus not allowed without your explicit written consent. Perhaps even explain that reading the document constitutes making a copy of it in the reader's mind. Add whatever other arbitrary rules you can think of, and do whatever needs to be done to make these rules legally binding to show them you're serious.

The more obvious solution is to never live on campus at college. Looking back on my freshmen year, I can't believe I paid close to $15,000 to live in a room the size of a prison cell, share a bathroom with 100 other people and then pay another $2400 or whatever for 15 meals a week in a cafeteria that was only open from 0800-1000, 1200-1400 and then 1700-2000. I paid more for housing on campus freshmen year than I did the rest of my time at college. My tent in Iraq was bigger than my dorm room and I only had to share a shower with 8 other people.

You might suggest that the policies that are being pursued internationally by media company execs and lawyers so they can protect their profit margins will also inadvertently allow dictatorships to control the flow of information that is available to their citizens and to control the outflow of information about their crimes against humanity. It is said that if the internet were available by the 1930's then the holocaust might have been prevented. If the internet can be controlled enough to stop file sharing of copyrighted material, it can be controlled enough to allow dictators to commit unspeakable horrors without fear of oversight and can allow them to oppress their populaces by denying them empowering information from the outside world.

Another angle you might take is that the infamous lawsuits filed by the RIAA in the united states resulted in millions in judgments against U.S. citizens. How much of that recovered money went into the pockets of artists? None. The artists received none of the money from those lawsuits which were supposedly representative of them and the harm they purportedly received from file-sharing.

I'm not going to source this for you but you can look it up.

Not that it matters anyway, seeing as how this comment will undoubtedly be relegated to the infamous "Load More Comments" section to be archived DOA and not read by a single soul anyway because the main comment section already filled up with retarded nonsense.

Back when I was a freshman in college, 2001, I used Direct Connect. I had my connection shut off within a month of starting school because the amount of traffic coming out of my IP had them convinced I had a virus and was unknowingly part of a botnet launching DoS. Once they figured out it wasn't a virus they reconnected me without any hassle at all. My, how times have changed.

I had a buddy in 2004 that was sharing several TBs of movies and shows on several public share networks. He, allegedly, was solely responsible for 7% of all campus traffic one day. That'll teach them to give everyone a fiber connection straight into their individual dorm room.

My school has a bandwidth usage website that I treat as my own personal scoreboard.

My highest recorded was 2 years ago when I downloaded 13GB in one day -- accounting for 6.3% of the entire campus usage. It seems like a low number, but apparently "if everyone used the Internet (capitalization = srs business) like you our connection could support 57 people."

Tonight after DLing MW2, I've gotten 11GB in 5 hours, so I'm optimistic about breaking the old record. It gets hard because they throttle me like hell (currently throttled to 2kb/s).

I've only ever gotten letters from my college twice, and that was in 2006 -- I actually wrote letters to the Dean of Students arguing that it wasn't the college's job to police the students on this matter and though I got form letters in response, I stopped receive "cease and desist" notices -- so I considered it a rousing success.

Off Topic: I remember being a sophomore in college (1999) and seeing Napster blocked by my school because it was chewing up around 95 plus percent of the all the network traffic (I wish I had saved the e-mail notification they sent everyone). Man everyone at my school was pissed. I remember having to use winsocks to get around it. Hell I remember freshman year (1998) prior to Napster, having to scour crappy obscure web sites to find one mp3 and then waiting 20-40 minutes for it to download if it even downloaded at all.

I know it was meant as a punishment, but I think I would have more fun with that essay than pretty much any essay I ever had to write for class.

If you put enough effort into it, you might want to talk to the editor of your school paper. Or maybe even the local paper in your town.

A:

I'd mention how to use bittorrent anonymously, either by using software like PeerGuardian or Tor, or getting into private torrenting sites.

B:

You'll need to learn a bit about the DMCA. It'd be interesting if you could find out how much money was spent lobbying for it to pass. That'd be the best answer about "who initiated these laws."

C:

You've already mentioned the study that shows pirates buy more stuff. Be sure to mention Ink.

Also, Myspace Music is a great example of what can happen when a band can take music directly to fans, fans that don't pay for songs, but pay to see concerts and t-shirts.

This is a good place to mention Net Neutrality, the things the MPAA is doing to prevent it.

I'm not sure where this fits in, but here's a great article, written by one of the Pirate Bay guys about the downfalls of copyright in general.

ACTA, is also worth mentioning. The scariest part is that so much credence is given to the accusation of copyright infringement.

D:

Aside from the stuff in section A, I'd close by explaining that copyright law isn't wrong in its intention. You don't have a right to view someone else's work without their permission. And that people and companies should be paid for the work they create. The point of the essay is that copyright law left unchecked, is much more dangerous than letting someone watch a movie without paying.

The very fact that you are writing this essay, not to further your education, but because a media corporation demanded it of your university should seriously give one pause.

A lot of colleges take student papers and copy them into a database used to track and check for potential plagiarism. Students should post a notice on the top page stating that the assignment being submitted is the original work of the student and is not to be copied, shared, or distributed. The work is the intellectual property of the student and any misuse or copyright infringement, such as submitting a copy to a plagiarism checker, is a violation of such intellectual property will result in legal action.

Seriously, they don’t think twice about scanning your work through complex algorithms and then storing a copy of it for future plagiarism checking but they get upset when you download a copy of some IP.

Some other things to keep in mind: VHS, photocopiers, and fax machines all had the same fight.

I work at ITS in a major university, and our IT department is in charge of dealing out the paperwork for first offenses (just some compliance stuff, no goofy punishment essays like in the OP). We're not security, we just give them the stuff and basically tell them we have nothing to do with it when they ramble about how they didn't do anything ("MAYBE IT'S A VIRUS" is popular) or their roommate was on their computer or whatever. First time is the paperwork, second is a $300 fine, third is expulsion.

Filesharing on a university network is a bad, bad idea - you don't necessarily even need to be on campus; you can be logged into a VPN. These companies (Showtime is a big one right now) actively monitor university networks because it's so easy to catch filesharers there, and then send our security departments a list of IP addresses which are easily and instantly connected with school logon IDs. So yeah, if you must torrent, don't do it at school.

Echoing what was said already said, the university doesn't care, but they're legally obligated to comply with these companies that send us the IPs.

Go with Stephan N. Kinsella's Against intellectual property, then wrap it up saying that you will no longer download stuff, not because it is wrong (it isn't), but because it is illegal -- the guys who rake in the cash from threats of court action and legitimized monopolies (yes, every song is a little monopoly) control lawmaking, while law enforcement controls the guns used to enforce the laws, and you do not have any recourse against that size Mafia. And that you understand that campus policy must respond to the pragmatism of not being prosecuted by the legitimized official mobsters.

Or just look like the typical Ayn Rand reading college student that learnt politics from reddit :/

The moment you start talking about "the guns of government" I guarantee people will laugh.

TBH, I think the best course of action is just to do the paper and explain that it is a victimless crime since no-one would know you had done it if they didn't directly observe it. Perhaps reference some of the Stallman stuff to give a balanced view too.

Mention how many copyright violations take place when you sing happy birthday at somebody's party. I forget the name, but there was a book recently about how copyright law has run amok and turned everyone into criminals.

You could also have a fun time writing a paper on "The consequences of repression" as far as psychology is saying.

Do something in league of witch-hunts (Arthur Miller's Crucible) and then McCarthyism to the psychology of demonification (see Carl Jung/Robert Johnson on the Shadow) and polarized fundamentalist thinking (Stephen Larsen has a book on this with brain scans of what happens to people who demonify shit).

It follows on the idea that human consciousness is a pendulum and the more you push on one side, the more you feed the opposite side through repression. The RIAA united us when they accused 95% of us to be pirates. Of course it doesn't help that the film industry makes a bunch of pirate films with Johnny Depp to show us how cool pirates are.

Further, to buttress one of your other points, there's a wonderful history of refuting technology that is quite curious. People refused small pox vaccines because cow pox would taint "pure" human blood and make us grown hoofs. The first blood transfusions would make women grow beards and men grow breasts, the railroad would cause suffocation if people went above 15mph and the first person to break the sound barrier would disintegrate.

<shrug> I'm just trying to give you some fun facts to put some little meaty giblets in your paper. Have fun, and keep us posted on what you write, and what they reply. :-D

For example, I have to pay 100 dollars for some idiot to check my computer for illegal software. Last time I did that (about 3 years ago), they failed to notice the ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM was pirated... but I digress...

Hey, fuck you. I work tech support on a campus and have to deal with assholes like you all the fucking time. You're too stupid to use a goddamned private tracker so you get DMCA's sent to you and then act like a prick to me when I'm made to look over your machine. And guess what, they probably did notice your OS was pirated but didn't tattle because they don't give a fuck.

Pisses me off when fucking muppets are too stupid to realize the techs aren't the ones making the policies for this kind of thing.

Pour your soul into this paper,
& in case they decide to escalate this situation, have a back up paper with a lot of bullshit about how evil file sharing is,to apologize with in case you get cold feet if they threaten suspension, etc.

A similar thing happened to me two years ago. The administration doesn't care about filesharing. The IT people don't care about it. You don't care about it. But Showtime does and to appease them and to rid your school of some potential liability, they want you to spend ten minutes writing a crap paper. Just do it. Showtime isn't gonna subpoena you if you don't but you've spent more time in this thread that it would take to write the paper.

D) I have NO idea how to approach this. Clearly I haven't learned what >they want me to learn.

Be honest - tell them you have learnt that the world is full of different views and opinions, and that's a good thing. Tell them that you have learnt that it is not different views that are the problem, but that the problem - all problems - are created when one group decides to punish the other.

Then thank them for making you write the essay, so you could clarify your thoughts on why we feel that creating punishment for our differences is a solution - when in fact, it is the opposite.

This would seem to be counterproductive to the educational process. Don't you have enough to do already without doing bullshit research with blatant interpretive bias? Making you do this stuff makes the university look irresponsible.

I hate how reddit is full of "redditors" who are sooo smug and self-satisfied. It's sickening but then again there are guys like the one who wrote his master's thesis on underworld economics and did an AMA about it.

I know what you mean. Is he at University, or daycare? Here's the evidence for daycare: plenty of time to watch pirated movies. Plenty of time to write papers in addition to his normal course load. Being asked to write a paper as punishment for what I am sure is a clear violation of school policy (in the real world you don't get this chance). Thinking he should write a paper based on a subject he knows nothing about. Feeling he is entitled to unlimited free entertainment. Thinking he can affect some meaningful change with an uninformed paper that will only be read by people with no interest in hearing his opinion. Etc.

My school has an eye of Sauron watching over our network, which not only slows it down but causes it to fail every 10 minutes or so (the system monitors incoming and outgoing bit packets in which they claim can scan 6-18BITS to detect digital signatures) which are by passable with passworded multiple .rar files, however .torrent files become corrupted upon downloaded (You know in case you wanted to do it with out them knowing). They claim that the system is "flawless" but that's a bunch of crap.

Anyways, your school is complying with the biggest BULLSHIT clause in the newest and latest government intervention against internet neutrality: The Higher Education Opportunity Act! In order for schools whether private, or public to get funding from the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT they must comply with:

SEC. 871. CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL THEFT PREVENTION.
‘‘(a) PROGRAM AUTHORITY.—From the amounts appropriated
under subsection (d), the Secretary may make grants to institutions
of higher education, or consortia of such institutions, and enter
into contracts with such institutions, consortia, and other organizations,
to develop, implement, operate, improve, and disseminate
programs of prevention, education, and cost-effective technological
solutions, to reduce and eliminate the illegal downloading and distribution
of intellectual property. Such grants or contracts may
also be used for the support of higher education centers that will
provide training, technical assistance, evaluation, dissemination,
and associated services and assistance to the higher education
community as determined by the Secretary and institutions of
higher education.
‘‘(b) AWARDS.—Grants and contracts shall be awarded under
this section on a competitive basis.
‘‘(c) APPLICATIONS.—An institution of higher education or a
consortium of such institutions that desires to receive a grant
or contract under this section shall submit an application to the
Secretary at such time, in such manner, and containing or accompanied
by such information as the Secretary may reasonably require
by regulation.
‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There are authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section such sums as may
be necessary for fiscal year 2009 and each of the five succeeding
fiscal years.

Basically, your school is F@#%ing you over because they want the CHANCE at getting Federal Funding. Not only that, but the government has a LIST of programs that can be used. Its pork-barreling AND government destruction of net neutrality ALL IN ONE ACT!

(Protip: The software costs ~30,000 dollars a year to operate. YOUR SCHOOL HAS ONLY A COMPETITIVE CHANCE AT GETTING FUNDING. IF YOUR SCHOOL DOESNT GET FUNDING THEY ARE LOSING 30 GRAND FOR NOTHING.)

Hope this helps you, a lot of people on this forum aren't aware of this garbage the school and governments are pulling on Students.

Enlighten me, does every U.S. university treat its students like children? Because spying on adults in order to please a media cartel sound pretty outrageous to me. I guarantee you, there would be riots over that on any respectable European university.

I used the argument of "If you pirate something, you weren't going to buy that something in the first place. The loss of revenue is 0 because you aren't taking a physical copy of something AND you weren't going to buy it in the first place."

I also used the argument that some artists actually encourage file sharing, and gave examples of "pay what you want" schemes that have benefited the artist more than if they were to put it out on CD.

I just moved out of the dorms and off of the resident network this past year. My last few weeks I downloaded a couple of hundred gigs of software, movies, etc. I ended up getting a knock on my door for it just a few days before move out.

"We're going to need to see your computer and remove the pirated material. There will be a fee for this service"

"I know that I can decline your offer because I ~did~ read the agreement. You can go ahead and take me off of your system."

My roommate in college wrote his senior thesis on intellectual property rights in the digital age. i sent him a message with this thread in it to see what he can think of off the top of his head. i'll post what he says later on.

Something to explore, that is sort of an off issue, is the fact that for money, or under threat of legal action, the university system, as well as many governments have suddenly started caring about monitoring internet content. When did showtime, the RIAA, MPAA , or whoever else get this power? Why is the university using its time and resources to act as the enforcement arm of a for profit company?

Also curious: what would the consequences be if you were caught shoplifting from a campus store?

oh man this is so stupid!! you're at a university and they are making you waste your time with this. if you want some good content to write start talking how the music/movie/magazine are in the content provider industry and those who don't adopt to consumer demand are destined to fail. companies like netflix with streaming on demand are the wave of the future and what not. if i were you in the futures, newsgroups :)

First, I think the RIAA has gotten a little out of control with the fines.

Second, I do personally think DRM is bad as it could render music you own unplayable.

Third, share with your friends all you want. We did it with cassettes when I was a kid.

BUT, I do think uploading content for mass downloading is wrong. And downloading that content is wrong. I'm one of those people that makes their living in entertainment so when something is posted for mass download it really does have an effect.

Wrong maybe, but not stealing, and not as wrong as stealing if wrongness is to be quantified,which, judging by our current system of tiered laws and penalties, it is.

Stealing is wrong because it deprives the original owner of the object of the theft. It may also be wrong because it deprives the owner the opportunity to sell it to you because you already have it. Copyright infringement is ONLY wrong because it deprives the owner the opportunity to sell it to you because you already have it.

And besides, artists only get 5% of the actual profits from each CD sale. The RIAA needs to stop being so concerned about losing money for something they didn't even create, when it ends up helping the artists and gaining them a lot of exposure.

That is pretty whack that they are under no legal obligation to report people, but fine you anyway. I'd just ask someone what's the penalty if you don't pay the fine or write the paper. I wouldn't spend a minute of my writing a paper and paying the fine.

OTOH, consider this: It's a college's Internet connection that is provided for learning and research and torrenting takes a lot of bandwidth. I think the school is being proactive about keeping it's bandwidth available. I'd say having to write a paper is a relatively minor punishment, and since what the OP did was illegal, they're more than justified in their actions.

FYI, I also did illegal filesharing on the campus network in college. I think it's clearly wrong, but I did it anyway. I've been trying to get away from it & got sick of scanning my computer for viruses all the time, but I still download copyrighted material from time to time.

I agree that it's not like he's innocent, but a fine and a paper? It should be one or the other, especially in a context like this. Punishment doesn't fit the infraction. It didn't cost the university anything, they are purely profiting off his mistake and I'd be polite yet stern about pointing this out.

"Explain what students can and should do to protect themselves from illegal filesharing..."

I don't recall that illegal filesharing ever assaulted anyone.

Edit: But in all seriousness. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Since they intend to express illegal filesharing as an offense, is it like protecting yourself against committing burglary, or do they mean that a student can actually be the victim of filesharing?

Do not write this paper! By writing this paper, you are essentially admitting your guilt in committing a crime (according to the DMCA act) which is a federal crime. Notice how the paper implies that you are guilty and therefore must write about why you are guilty! It is the equivalent of somebody asking the question, "Do you parents know you're gay?" Well if you answer no or yes, you just implied you're gay since the basic premise of the question assumes you are gay. The same applies in this essay they asked you to write, they assume you are guilty and therefore making you admit to it no matter how you answer those questions. If you have never watched and/or listened to this youtube video: Don't Talk to Cops now is a good time to do so!

By writing this paper you are waiving your 5th amendment right against self incrimination--although the university (assuming private) is not a public entity, there is no guarantee that your essay cannot be used against you in a court of law in case Showtime (or whoever) wishes to come after you on criminal charges. You have two options in this case

Option 1: Write a paper about the importance of the 5th amendment as a substitute paper to satisfy the universities requirements.

Option 2: Agree to write the paper if and only if the university obtains an immunity order from a federal judge in your district court.

Option 3: Refuse to write the paper without the representation of a lawyer at all times; if pressed otherwise--continue to repeat "I do not waive my fifth amendment right" like a broken record. Make sure you do it in a manner that isn't belligerent and let the person know that you are more than willing to write a paper as long as it is within the legal scope of your rights.

For part D:
What I have learned from the incident is that torrenting showtime closely monitors file sharing over the internet. As a result, I will do the next best thing possible, which is go to my friend's house and start recording the shows on DVD, which I will then proceed to cut out all the commercials. More or less, the lack of file sharing has only given me a large inconvenience, due to the fact that my friend who has showtime lives about five minutes away from me, walking.

Colleges and Universities are hardcore when it comes to copyrighted material, I guess cause they actually have the money to pay the damages if sued, versus the 70 year old grandmother who gets sued for two million cause her tween airhead daughter was downloading using grandmas' IP.

when you said some idiot checked your computer you should probably know that he/she wasn't looking to get you in trouble... only to cover themselves from their managers that they actually looked.

who wants to turn in some kid that they don't really know? I mean I was asked to look at something along those lines at one point and I took a quick look since two managers were behind me... asked the kid if it was all cleared up and asked the managers if we needed to do anything else. my manager said that he didn't want to get the kid in trouble either.

For real? I work at IT for my school and if someone gets a DMCA notification, we just shut off their internet connection and make them come in and sign a paper saying they won't do it again. Your IT department must have a bunch of free time to deal with this BS.

If you read french, you can check this site :
- http://www.laquadrature.net/
It's a comitte of person who have build this ( an "association" dont know the word in english ) against the hadopi law in france. ( basicly : a law about piracy but who is also againt freedom, and technicly stupid )

If you are looking for a book, here you go :
http://www.ilv-bibliotheca.net/librairie/internet_et_creation.html , it's very serious material and reflexion about culture, creative content creation, and P2P. It's argue the following point : P2P may be a bad thing in a short terms for major, it's a great thing for cultur, and in the long term for the creative industrie ( music, movie, games.... )

Yourrrr not happy with my english ? read my post with a strong french accent, it will be at least funny.